NASHVILLE — While President Obama and congressional Republican leaders struggle for a political solution to the impending "fiscal cliff," Tennessee voters favor compromise to solve major problems over rigid ideology, according to the new statewide Vanderbilt University Poll.

Seventy-four percent of those surveyed said they want state and federal legislators to work with members of the opposing party to solve problems while 22 percent said lawmakers should only pursue their own values and priorities, according to the poll released Wednesday.

The Vanderbilt Poll also found that Tennessee voters prefer the state rather than the federal government run the online health insurance exchange required by the federal Affordable Care Act — but are deeply divided over whether to expand Medicaid in the state to cover more low-income people. Those are the two major decisions state officials face about the state's participation in the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare."

The poll was released two days after Gov. Bill Haslam decided against creating a state-run exchange but the survey was conducted from Nov. 27 to Dec. 9, before his decision was announced. Vanderbilt's poll of 829 registered voters across Tennessee found that 53 percent favor a state exchange while 33 percent want the federal government to operate the exchange, a marketplace where uninsured people and small businesses can compare and buy health insurance plans. Haslam said he's declining a state-run exchange because the federal government is still drafting the regulations for it, and there's no guarantee states will have enough control to undertake the risks.

The poll's findings represent a disconnect between a majority of Tennesseans and the statehouse on the politics of the issue. Republicans and poll respondents who identify themselves as tea party members favor a state-run exchange while Democrats favor a national exchange — a reversal of the positions of party leaders in the legislature. In the poll, 73 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of tea partiers and 59 percent of independents said the state should run the exchange, a stand favored by only 31 percent of Democrats.

"The governor weighed all of the information and made a business decision. He understood throughout the process that there were strong opinions on both sides of the issue but removed politics from his decision making," David Smith, Haslam's press secretary, said after the poll's release. The Vanderbilt Poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International using land-line and cell phones, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Vanderbilt University political science professor John Geer, co-director of VU's Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions and who oversaw the poll, said that taken as a whole, the findings underscore that "Tennesseans are reasonably pragmatic. They want problems solved and really understand the need for compromise in this day and age. It's not just about ideology.

"And (the poll found) the citizens of the state care about the economy first and foremost and they care about health care and education but social issues — for example like guns and gay rights — are just not a top priority of the citizens of the state," he said.

Vanderbilt also found that Tennessee's top three elected officials are popular with voters. Haslam enjoys an approval rating of 68 percent with high marks across party lines, followed by U.S. Sen. Bob Corker with 60 percent, and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander with 56 percent. Forty-five percent of Tennessee voters approve of President Obama's performance, which is actually up from 37 to 39 percent in previous Vanderbilt surveys over the last year.

But 52 percent approve of the performance of the Tennessee legislature and only 21 percent approve of the U.S. Congress's performance.

When presented with a list of frequently discussed options for reducing the federal budget deficit, 60 percent of respondents favor reducing tax deductions for those making more than $250,000 a year and 57 percent favored allowing tax cuts to expire for the same upper-income category. But only 35 percent favor raising the eligibility age for Medicare, 40 percent favor a spending freeze on domestic programs and 50 percent would limit overall spending on Medicaid and Medicare.

"It's fair to say Tennesseans are conservative but they are much more purple than they are deep red," Geer said. "We are conservative but not it is not quite as conservative as some may think. By a 3 to 1 majority, Tennesseans want compromise; they realize you need to work across the party aisle."